Posts Tagged ‘Thomas J. Wells’
Posted on August 26, 2011 - by Annie Johnson
Captain Oliver’s Triumph: Opening Day at the Eclipse Course, March 17, 1837 [Part I. - 1837 Races]
“Many persons determined to see the race, were compelled to walk, as they did, under a burning sun, four miles and a half.” — Spirit of the Times, 8 April 1837
At the same time that he was Postmaster of Big Lick in 1831, twenty-one-year-old Yelverton N. Oliver was co-proprietor of the race track at Liberty, Virginia. By 1833, he was serving as treasurer of the newly formed Jockey Club and proprietor of the course at Lynchberg. And the next year Oliver was in Washington, reviving the city’s track.
Posted on August 12, 2011 - by Annie Johnson
A Toast to Bumper, the Best Winded, the Fleetest Horse of All [Part II. - 1837 Races]
“The public may probably never have it in their power again to witness such sport!” Captain Yelverton N. Oliver
It was a landmark day for racing in the United States, for this was a Sunday – and the first occasion for a Jockey Club anywhere to hold a contest on the Sabbath. But this was New Orleans, and Sunday was regarded as a day of recreation; continuing the Jockey Club’s six-day race meeting over this Sunday of March 19, 1837, wasn’t considered indecent in the least.
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Antebellum Turf Times is a weekly publication dedicated to America's first national pastime—specifically the history of thoroughbred racing in America prior to the Civil War.
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